Stop animal abuse in Tyson factory farms

Tyson is the one of the largest meat processors in the U.S. They raise their animals in factory farms, where they abuse and neglect them. A "factory farm" is a large-scale industrial operation that houses thousands of animals raised for food—such as chickens, turkeys, cows, and pigs—and treats them with hormones and antibiotics to prevent disease and maximize their growth and food output.

Factory farming is destroying our environment, our communities, our health, and the welfare of the animals.

The pollution from animal waste causes respiratory problems, skin infections, nausea, depression, and even death for people who live near factory farms. Hog, chicken and cattle waste has polluted 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states and contaminated groundwater in 17 states. In addition to this, factory farms have driven small farms out of business and represent the majority of our food system today.

A typical supermarket chicken today contains more than twice the fat, and about a third less protein than 40 years ago. Animals are fed and sprayed with huge amounts of pesticides and antibiotics, which can remain in their bodies and are passed on to the people who eat them, creating serious health hazards in humans. Extensive antibiotic use by factory farms creates drug resistant bacteria, which puts human health at risk. Factory farming practices spread diseases, such as mad cow, swine flu, and various food poisonings, including e-coli and salmonella.

On factory farms, animals are induced to grow bigger, to grow faster, and to produce more than their systems can support, while they are subjected to confinement and painful mutilations.

2 in 3 farm animals in the world are now factory farmed. Worldwide, about 70 billion farm animals are now raised for food each year. The beaks of chickens, turkeys, and ducks are often removed in factory farms to reduce the excessive feather pecking and cannibalism seen among stressed, overcrowded birds.

Egg-laying hens are sometimes starved for up to 14 days, exposed to changing light patterns and given no water in order to shock their bodies into molting. It’s common for 5% to 10% of hens to die during the forced molting process. Dairy cows typically live to their third lactation before being culled. Naturally, a cow can live for 20 years.

The Humane Methods of Slaughter Act does not apply to chickens or other birds. Suppliers are allowed to continuously torture chickens in ways that shock and horrify most people. In fact, the United States Department of Agriculture estimates that as many as a million chickens are scalded alive at slaughterhouses each year in the United States.

Tyson employees who work with the animals have little to no regard for the pigs’ lives. Undercover employees have filmed disturbing footage of Tyson employees beating pigs, throwing piglets into the air and back and forth between them, and electrocuting pigs when they are unresponsive to their demands. Such sadistic cruelty is frequent at Tyson factory farms.

Sick and injured pigs with severe, bleeding wounds or infections were left to suffer without veterinary care. Most pigs are fully conscious while they are being branded multiple times while also being kicked and shouted at because they won’t stop running away.

After pregnant pigs give birth, her babies are ripped away from her forever. If she tries to get back to her babies, she is mercilessly beaten back into her crate. Once the piglets are taken away, they will get their tails removed while they are partially or even fully conscious. Piglets have their tails cut off and their testicles ripped out of their bodies without any painkillers.

Pigs are stuffed into tiny, maggot-infested gestation crates. Gestation crates are 2x7 foot metal enclosures in which the pigs cannot stand for more than a few seconds at a time due to lack of exercise. They cannot even turn around; any movements they are able to make in an attempt to get more comfortable are very slight. Many develop neurotic behaviors because of this and begin biting the metal bars of the crate.

In fact, gestation crates are so cruel they have been banned in nine U.S. states, as well as in the entire European Union. Responding to consumer concerns, nearly every major food provider in the country, including McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Chipotle, Safeway, Kroger, Kmart and Costco, have demanded their suppliers do away with these cruel crates. Major pork producers, such as Smithfield and Hormel, have committed to phasing out gestation crates, and Cargill is already 50% crate-free.

But not Tyson.

Tyson continues to torture pigs by cramming them in cages barely larger than their own bodies for nearly their entire lives.

Stopping the abuse of animals would benefit our environment, our communities, our health, and the animals.

It is critical that we bring an end to factory farming abuses to restore a more sustainable food system and preserve our world. Please, take a moment to sign my petition calling on Tyson Foods to implement meaningful animal welfare policies and less cruel killing methods to prevent animal abuse at its factory farms.